Receptacle for empty bottles



May 25, 1943. R. N. LEONARD RECEPTACLE FOR EMPTY BOTTLES v F iled Aug.19,

1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l May 25,1943. R. N. LEONARD RECEPTAGLE FOR EMPTYBOTTLES.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 7 Filed Aug. 19, 1940 m 3 u a av my 2 Mi 1W a :G v 4 .ww H w n L A U h Patented May 25, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

Dispenser Corporation of a corporation of Illinois Application August19, 1949, Serial No. 353,235

7 Claims.

My invention relates to receptacles for empty bottles .or the like. Itsprincipal contemplated use is in connection with the dispensing-as bycoin control Vending machines-of bottled milk .or bottled carbonatedbeverages which are to be drunk on the premises.

as the vending machine contains, so: that all of the empty bottles canbe accommodated until a serviceman calls to supply fresh stock for thevending machines and take away the empty bottles. In practical workingconditions, this may require a sixty to one hundred bottle capacity forthe receptacle.

If the receptacle is made relatively deep so that floor space isminimized, patrons of the vending machine cannot be relied upon to reachdown into the receptacle carefully t deposit empty bottles withoutdropping them when the receptacle has but few bottles in it. If thepatron does not exercise that care, however, but merely drops the emptybottle into the receptacle from the height of its top, the fall i sogreat that the bottle will be broken and probably some of the bottleswhich it hits at the bottom of the receptacle.

This danger of breakage can be largely eliminated by providing shallowtrays, but this involves a two-fold objection of having to provide avery much larger area, which would occupy very much more floor space,and the provision of a tablelike legged structure to support the largearea shallow trays at a sufficient height so that the empty bottles willnot be dropped.

The primary object of my invention is a solution to the above outlinedproblem of providing a receptacle for used bottles which has adequatecapacity, occupies but little floor space, and eliminates danger ofbreakage from dropping bottles.

Other objects of my invention are concerned with ease of removing emptybottles from the receptacle; ease of cleaning the receptacle of bev-,

erages spilled from the empty bottles, bottle caps,

used straws, and other incidental waste matter likely to be put into thereceptacle; discouragement of tossing bottles into the receptaclewhereby they might be broken; a convenient elimination of theobjectionable odor of decomposition of spilled milk within thereceptacle; and pro- America, Chicago, Ill.,

tection for the door of the receptacle from abuse by contact withbottles being deposited in it.

.One of the outstanding virtues ,of the solution which I have providedfor these problems is that it may take the form .of a relativelyinexpensive accessory adapting a conventional general utility wastereceptacle to the peculiar problem of empty bottles.

The foregoing, together with further objects, features and advantages ofmy invention are set forth in the following description of the specificembodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompany-ing drawingswherein: I

Fig. 1 is a small scale side elevation, with parts of the casing and canbroken away, of the receptacle of my invention, showing the tray in itslowermost position;

Fig. 2 is a medial vertical section of the recep- .tacle taken .on theline 2+2 .of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view with the cover removed, which can be considered astaken on the line 3,3 .of Fig. 1;

Fig.4 is a perspective view of the tray and associated suspendingsprings; and

Figs. 5 .and 6 are side and plan views of one of the hooks whereby theupper ends of the springs are detachably anchored to the upper cornersof the can or liner of the receptacle.

The iouter casing 10 is square in cross-section and comprises fourequalside walls and a bottom. A pyramidal cover II is hinged at l2 along one.of its bottom edges to the top of a side of the casing. A large panelopening is formed in two opposite sides of the cover II. This is closedby a butterfly door l3 hinged at M along the short ridge of thepyramidal cover. The wings of the butterfly door are drooping at thesame angle as the sides of the cover. Because the door is hinged at .itsupper edge, it normally swings into the planesof the sidesof the cover.When something is to be inserted into the receptacle, one winger theother of the door is pushed inwardly, causing both Wings .to swingtogether.

The can or liner 15 sets within the casing l0.

' .Thecan l 5 isof square cross-section, just enough smaller than thecasing to be easily removed by use .of the wire handles J6. The can isapproximately the same height as the inside height of the outer casingand the can [5 comprises four equal side wallsand a bottom. The can ismade of galvanized iron or other corrosion-resisting material and iswater-tight, whereas the outer casing may be enameled, not coming incontact with any liquid contents, and need not be particularly corrosionproof nor water-tight.

risers.

two inches.

The receptacle as thus far described will be recognized as a standardreceptacle of a wellknown type in extensive use. Utilization of myinvention, therefore, does not require the manufacture of a new andpeculiar type of receptacle, but merely the addition, in the nature ofan accessory, of what I shall now describe. From the description whichfollows, it will be observed that the accessory which I supply isdetachably mounted in the can and without the necessity of making anyphysical alteration in the can or any other part of the standardreceptacle in order to employ my accessory.

For use with the above described receptacle, I provide a shallowbasket-like tray I1, which might be formed from sheet metal orperforated sheet metal but is preferably made after the fashion of awire basket. This tray I1 is formed by a set of three vertically spacedhorizontal peripheral wires spaced squares as viewed in plan. The trayis completed by a number of U-shaped wires l9,

half of which are disposed transversely to the other half. Each U-shapedwire l9 comprises a webbed portion [9a. contributing to the bottom ofthe tray and vertical legs l9b forming side The wires [9 are weldedwhere they intersect each other and where they intersect the horizontalwires I8. The several wires could be interwoven but with adequatewelding it is not.

necessary I In practice, in a receptacle to accommodate seventy-twoempty milk bottles, each of one-third inches and the height of the canis about thirty- In such case, the tray might have a height of aboutthree inches and, as shown in Fig. 3, the tray would have an easyclearance on all four sides of, say, one-fourth of an inch between thesides of the tray and sides of the can. The wires l9 are preferablyspaced to provide an inch and a half mesh so that'any bottle capsdeposited in the receptacle will drop through the tray and fall to thebottom of the can.

An angle upright 20 is placed in each corner of the tray. The angleupright is positioned so that it opens toward the corner with the edgesof its two flanges in welded contact 2| to the thre'e wires M. Thecorners of the wires, together with the angle uprights, form a verticalpassage at each corner. The upper ends of the angle uprights terminateabout flush with the top of the tray but the uprights extend for somedistance below the tray-about seven inches with the exemplary dimensionsstated, making the uprights about ten inches high.

A coil tension spring 22 is mounted in the angle of each upright. Thenormal length of each spring is about the same as the length of theupright. As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the spring passes through thepreviously mentioned vertical passageway formed by the corners of thewires l8 and the angle uprights. The lower end of each spring isanchored to the lower end of its associated upright by a rivet 23. Theupper end of each spring carries a hook 24. Each hook 24 is formed froma wire ring deformed into a hook shape as viewed in side elevation (Fig.The lower loop of the hook engages the upper loop or ring of the spring.The upper loop of the hook is hooked over the upper corner of the canl5. As indicated in Fig. 4, the lower loop of the hook is bent inwardlyto a point over the IB forming superposed but vertical axis of thespring, thereby avoiding any curving of the spring. The tray I1 is thussupported within the can solely by the tension of the springs 22.

The springs 22 which I employ are carefully designed or selected, asregards their ratio of expansion to tensionand this is very important50' that the initial weight of the tray will not tension the springs somuch but that the tray when empty will lie in the position shown nearthe top of the can, and so that as empty bottles are succesively set onto the tray, their accumulating weight will cause the springs to expandand lower the tray at such a rate as to keep the :top layer ofaccumulated bottles about at a constant level. That of course involvesan assumption of some more or less constant weight per unit volume for apile of empty bottles. I find that for empty milk bottles of the sizeindicated set hit or miss into a square space of the dimensionsindicated, the ratio of weight per inch of height of the pile remainsfairly constant. Of course, if the milk bottles were carefullypackedbyhand-or in vertical position the weight per inch of height ofthe pile would be definitely in excess of this constant; but inpractice, patrons of a bottle dispensing machine, in putting bottlesinto the receptacle through the butterfly door, can be relied upon notto do any packing but let the bottles fall as they will.

Somewhat surprisingly, I findthat this constant remains substantiallythe same for pint or half-pint milk bottles as it does for. one-thirdquart milk bottles. For pop bottles the constant may be sufficientlydifferent to require springs of different characteristics.

As empty milk bottles are successively pushed through the butterfly doorand permitted to drop, they fall, in the first instance, on the bottomof the tray, which represents a fall of not over three inches to fiveinches, which will not harm the bottles. As more bottles areaccumulated, they tend to even themselves out fairly Well across thearea of the can and the tray, as previously explained, descends suchdistances in proportion to accumulated weight that the top of the pileof accumulated empty bottles remains at a fairly fixed level, which ingeneral is only two or three inches below the top of the can. Thus,regardless of the number of bottles accumulated in the receptacle,another bottle being pushed in through the butterfly door and droppedwill not drop more than three or four inches, which is not enough of afall to injure the bottles. In fact, the normal tendency of patrons inpushing a bottl through the butterfly door is to hold the neck of thebottle. until the neck of the bottle is down to about the level of thebottom of the opening for the butterfly door, which means that thebottom of th bottle .will rest, or almost rest,

on top of the pile before the bottle is released, and

thus as a matter of fact, there is practically no dropping of thebottles.

The projection of the angle uprights 20 several inches below the bottomof the tray serves four functions: first, it provides a substantialinitial length for the spring which is expanded from a normaluntensioned length of ten inches to a length of some thirty inches;second, it pro vides limiting stops andrests for the tray and its weightof accumulated bottleawhen the receptacle is filled; third, it keeps thebottles from descending into contact with debris in the bottom of thecan, so that when the bottles are later removed, spilled milk, bottlecaps, straws, et c.,

do-not adhere to'theexterior of thebottles; and; fourth, it providessome ten inches of length for the corners of the tray riding in thecorners of the can andpreventing such cocking of the tray that it mightbind in the can. (The downward extensions of the angle uprights are,however, at the expense of a few inchesof otherwise available capacity01" the receptacle.)

The placement of the springs close to the corners of the can keeps themout of interference with the bottles.

While the milk bottles cannot passbelow the tray, milk bottle caps andused straws can drop through the tray down tothe bottom of the can andlikewise any mill: which may spill out of the more or less emptybottles.After a Serviceman has cleaned out any such accumulated waste from thebottom of the can, he can sprinkle a little lime it! in the bottom ofthe can so that any split milk or milk adhering to bottle caps will beprevented by the lime from souring and giving off disagreeable odors.For that purpose it may be advisable to add some water to the lime inthe bottom of the can. In th instance of empty pop bottles, the limewould neutralize the acidity of any spilt carbonated beverage whichmight otherwise hasten the corrosion of the can.

When a Serviceman comes to remove the empty bottles, he will throw thecover H back on its hinge l2 to uncover the top of the receptacle andthen remove the bottles one or two at a time, setting them into a bottlecase. As bottles are removed, and the load on the springs lightened, thesprings will pull the tray and the remaining pile of bottles upwardly tokeep the level of the top of the pile of remaining bottles atapproximately a constant level. This reverse action feature of myinvention greatly facilitates thework of the serviceman in removingbottles because he does not have to reach down into a deep receptacle.It is not necessary for the serviceman to clean out the can every timehe refills the dispensing machine and removes the empty bottles from thereceptacle; he may do so only once a day or once every two or threedays, especially where the lime is used to counteract the spilt milk.When the serviceman does clean out the can, he can lift the can, with thtray mounted therein, out of the can by using the handle l6 and take itto a convenient sink. There he can quickly remove the tray and springsby simply unhooking the four spring hooks 24, rinse off the tray ifnecessary, and dump the contents of the can and wash it out.

If the can 25 should prove leaky in a few months service due tocorrosion, a new can can be substituted but the same tray, which is notsubject to much wear or corrosion, can continue to be used.

For protecting the butterfly door [3 from having its enamel worn off andbecoming unsightly by the abrasion of bottles pushing against the door,I prefer to include, as a part of my accessories adapting the standardreceptacle to the peculiar problems of empty bottles, a rubber sheet 28of the same area and profile as the butterfly door which overlies thedoor and has clips, or inturned lower edges 29 molded therein, toembrace the lower edges of the door to protect the latter and to holdthe rubber sheet upon the butterfly door. Such a protective rubberjacket would preferably be of the same color as the receptacle cover andhence inconspicuous.

While I have illustrated and described this specific embodiment of myinvention, I contemplatethat-many changes and substitutions may be madewithout departing from the scope or spirit of my invention.

I claim:

An accessory for the purpose described comprising a square tray havingshallow sides and a perforate bottom, posts carried by the tray at therespective corners and extending downwardly from near the top of thetray for a considerable distance below the bottom of the tray, tensionsprings disposed in the corners along the respective posts with thelowerends of the springs anchored to the lower ends of the posts, and hookson the upper ends of the springs for anchoring over the respective topcorners of a vertically elongated square can, whereby to support thetray horizontally within the can for downward and upward movementtherein, the springs, under the weight of the empty tray, being of alength in the order of thelength of the posts and the springs being ofsuch characteristic that as empty bottles are accumulated in a pileresting upon the tray, the tray will descend distances corresponding tothe height of the pile, whereby the height of the pile remains at afairly constant level near the top of the can during the lowering of thetray.

2. A receptacle accessory according to claim 1, wherein the posts areangle strips with their flanges directed outwardly and wherein thesprings lie within the angles of the respective strips.

3. A receptacle accessory according to claim 1, wherein the posts areangle strips with their flanges directed outwardly and wherein thesprings lie within the angles of the respective strips and within thecorners of the sides of the tray.

4. As a receptacle for empty bottles, the combination of a verticallyelongated container having a bottle receiving opening at its upper end,a tray disposed across the container and mounted for verticalreciprocation within the container, spring means considerably verticallylonger than the vertical dimension of the tray for supporting the traywithin the container and anchored to the container near its upper end,and spring anchoring structure depending a considerable distance belowthe tray and having the lower ends of the spring means secured thereto,the spring means being so constructed and arranged that as like emptybottles, placed within the receptacle and resting upon the tray, areaccumulated, the spring means will yield under the weight of the bottlesto lower the tray appropriately to maintain the top of the pile ofaccumulated bottles at a fairly constant level near the upper end of thereceptacle.

5. In combination in a receptacle for empty bottles, a bottle-receivingtray, a vertically elongated open-top container a number of times asdeep as the tray within which the tray is vertically movable from aposition near the top of the container to a position near the bottom ofthe container, spring means substantially longer than the depth of thetray but substantially shorter than the depth of the container anchoredat the top of the container and extending down below the bottom of thetray, and means carried by and extending below the bottom of the tray towhich the lower ends of the spring means are anchored, the spring meansbeing extensible within elastic limits to permit the tray to be loweredfrom the position near the top of the container to the position near thebottom of the container as empty bottles are set into the tray so as toaccumulate a pile of bottles supported by the tray within the container.

6. A combination as set forth in claim 5 wherein the tray is of aperforated construction permitting debris material to fall from thebottles down into the container, and the depending means carried by thetray constitute stops engageable with the bottom of the container forsupporting the tray in spaced relation thereto, at the limit of descentof the tray and keeping tray and the bottles supported thereby fromdescending into contact with debris material that may have accumulatedon the bottom of the container.

7. In a receptacle for empty bottles, a relatively shallow tray adaptedto be disposed across a vertically elongated container of only slightlygreater horizontal inside dimensions than the outside horizontaldimensions of the tray so that the tray may reciprocate in verticallyslidable relation within the container, spring means for supporting thetray within the container so constructed and arranged that as like emptybottles placed within the tray are accumulated, the spring means willyield under the weight of the bottles to lower the tray appropriately tomaintain the top of the pile of accumulated bottles at a fairly constantlevel near the upper end of the container, and means extending downsubstantially at spaced points adjacent the periphery of the trayadapted'to cooperate with the wall of the container to prevent cockingof the tray which might cause it to bind in the container when the trayis unevenly loaded, the spring means comprise tension spring unitssubstantially longer than the depth of the tray and having their lowerends secured substantially below the bottom of the tray to saiddepending means while their upper ends extend at least to the top of thetray so that in the unloaded condition of the tray the top of the trayis close to the top of the container.

RALPH N. LEONARD.

